I love the outdoors around the year, but spring and autumn remain my favorite times to wander through the woods. Beyond the particular beauty and fair weather of these seasons, wild edibles abound.
The excitement of foraging never gets old. Hiking is an inherently cheap activity, and then to be able to produce free food from it makes my thrifty little heart sing. I've also aways wanted to be really woods-savvy, the kind of person who could walk into a forest with nothing more than a pocket knife and survive for weeks on my own. I might not have reached that stage quite yet, but a few times a year I am able to make a tasty meal out of the things I find on my walks. Early spring is not a great time for mushrooms, unless you're lucky enough to spot morels, and I have never been. Here in New England, fiddle heads and ramps are at the top of the spring foraging finds.
A quick disclaimer: Eating the wrong plants and fungus, even in small amounts, can kill you, and in many cases, cooking does not make any difference. This, and any other post on wild found foods is not intended as a reference. There are many sites available on the internet and a large number of books on the subject of foraging. Better yet, find a local expert or foray group to take you out in your area and verify your edibles.
Fiddle head is the term for the curled frond head of a fern leaf resembling the instrumental part of the same name. Not all ferns are created equal. The species we are interested in, pictured above, is the Ostrich Fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris. The taste of these young ferns is like a nutty green - some compare them favorably to asparagus.
Slightly too-old fiddlehead
The ostrich fern grows in a singular large feathery frond which curls out from the fiddle head. The most distinctive features are the progressively deeper groove on the stalk and the papery brown chaff loosely covering the fiddle head. Cut just below the young, tightly curved fiddle head.
The best part about finding ostrich ferns is their abundance, and relative ease of harvest. The hard part is deciding how much you'll actually be able to eat!
Ramps, or wild leeks, also grow in great bunches. Allium tricoccum is not as quick to spot as the ostrich fern, because its oblong low-lying leaves resemble a number of wild lilies out at the same time - but it is quite a bit easier to confirm. Digging below the leaves reveals a small white bulb, about an inch long.
Neil is excited we have finally found ramps!
The unassuming wild leek is a cousin to the onion, and can be interchanged easily in any recipe that calls for them. It has a pungent odor, something like a cross between garlic, onions, and unwashed gym socks. If you harvest something that does not smell distinctively of onions, its not a ramp. The taste is surprisingly mild and is an excellent accompaniment to soups and stir fries.
Marianna contemplates alternative uses for the dandelion trowel
You don't need any special equipment to dig ramps, because they tend to be in sandy, wet soil, and pull up after minimal digging around. However, in wild settings, I like to cause as little disturbance as possible to the surrounding environment - so a dandelion trowel is very useful for popping those bulbs out.
A warning about that smell - it's powerful. I wouldn't recommend leaving your newly gathered ramps in confined spaces, like say.. a car or an apartment. I made the mistake of doing both the first time we found them, and was rewarded with enough nausea to almost put me off trying them.
Many thanks to my unwitting foraging models, Neil and Marianna. Tune in next time to find out how I turned these forest finds into actual food!
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